中級日本語- Forming Japanese Sentences

The basic word order in English is subject-verb-object. In Japanese, it’s subject-object-verb. Instead of saying “I watched TV,” for example, you say “I TV watched.” Instead of saying “I ate sushi,” you say “I sushi ate.” Repeat after me: Put the verb at the end! Verb end!

Introducing particles

Subject-object-verb is the basic word order in Japanese, but object-subject-verb is also okay. As long as the verb is at the end of the sentence, Japanese grammar teachers are happy. For example, Mary invited John, you can say either “Mary John invited” or “John Mary invited” in Japanese.

A smart person like you may say, “Wait a minute! How do you know who invited whom?” The secret is that Japanese uses a tag called a particle after each noun phrase. The particle for the action performer (the subject) is ga (gah), and the particle for the action receiver (the direct object) is o (oh). So both the following sentences mean “Mary invited John”.

Mari ga Jon o sasotta. (mah-reee gah John oh sah-soht-tah)

Jon o Mari ga sasotta. (John oh mah-reee gah sah-soht-tah)

Other Japanese particles include kara (kah-rah), made (mah-deh), ni (nee), de (deh), to (toh), and ka (kah). Luckily, they can be translated into

English words iike from, until, to, with, by, at, in, on, and, and or. But each particle is translated differently depending on the context. For example, the particle de corresponds to in, by, or with in English:

Specifies how the action takes place; indicates the location,manner, or background condition of the action

Bosuton de benkyo shita. (boh-soo-tohn de behn-kyohh shee-tah; I studied in Boston.) TakushT de itta. (tah-koo sheee deh eet-tah; I wentthere by taxi.) Foku de tabeta. (fohh-koo deh tah-beh-tah; I ate with a fork.)

Japanese nouns need these particles, but they don’t need articles like a and the in English. Furthermore, you don’t need to specify singular or plural. Tamago (tah-mah-goh) means either “an egg” or “eggs.”